“Sharing Blessings”—Dhammadharini’s Bhikkhuni Sangha Kathina October 26th 2024—Abundant Gratitude & Appreciation
❧ Dhammadharini Monastery
“Sharing Blessings”
Dhammadharini Bhikkhuni Sangha Kathina Celebration
Abundant Gratitude & Appreciation
Susie offering the Kathina cloth to the Bhikkhuni Sangha
This early fall, the Dhammadharini community gathered once again for the cherished Kathina celebration. Friends and supporters arrived with offerings of food to share and contribute, while Kathina robes and other essential requisites were presented to the Bhikkhuni Sangha, filling the day with heartfelt joy and gratitude. We are so grateful to everyone in the community who participated—led up by Susie Kliks as the lead Kathina sponsor, with so many friends joining to help in offering the meal, joining in the sewing, and countless other details which made the day possible.
This year’s celebration held special significance with the generous donation of a good condition new-used truck, which will be of great assistance in supporting the hermitage’s ongoing needs—replacing the community’s long-serving old-old truck, which finally reached the end of its life. Our incredibly generous friend Kai led up this fundraising effort, and friend Farine the truck search, bringing together many donors from near and far to make this big offering possible.
Meeting the very-well-blessed “Silver Dragonfly”—the newest member of the Dhammadharini vehicle family
The Origin of the Kathina Ceremony
The Kathina Ceremony traces back to an account in the Vinaya Pitaka. Thirty monastics (bhikkhus), delayed by the seasonal rains (vassa), could not reach the Buddha in Savatthi, and completed their vassa retreat at a nearby location. Once the rains subsided, they resumed their journey, arriving weary and in soaked robes. Observing their hardship, the Buddha allowed them to “spread kathina”—an act of robe cloth offering that has since evolved into a tradition where lay followers support monastics by offering new robe cloth and essentials. This practice symbolizes community support and bestows five special privileges upon the participating monastics, reinforcing unity within the monastic community.
Cutting the cloth in preparation for sewing, and Ayya Sobhana - the Kathina recipient - bearing the Kathina robe cloth.
Kathina Ceremony Order of Events
The Kathina Ceremony unfolded through a series of steps, each rich in meaning and tradition:
Sponsoring the Kathina Cloth – Kathina donor Susie Kliks led the community in offering the Kathina robe cloth to the Bhikkhuni Sangha.
Appointing a Bhikkhuni – The Bhikkhuni Sangha formally selected Ayya Sobhana to receive the cloth, for the sake of “spreading the Kathina”
Converting to Personal Property – The cloth was formally bestowed upon Ayya Sobhana as her personal property, for “spreading the Kathina” before the following dawn
Creating the Kathina Robe – The cloth was carefully crafted into a robe. This was truly a community effort, with Khun O lending her considerable sewing expertise, and everyone who wanted to participate getting to contribute to the sewing—including the children!—as the day progressed. Venerable Bhikkhuni Vandana was our hero finishing up the robe after Khun O needed to depart!
Spreading the Kathina – The Kathina robe was “spread,” symbolizing shared privileges within the Sangha. In this ceremony, “spreading the Kathina” represents sharing special benefits among monastics, extending five privileges that foster unity and stability.
Rejoicing Together – The entire community celebrated the fulfillment of the Kathina ceremony with resounding “Anumodana!” and many “Sadhu sadhu sadhu!”s
The beautiful and generous meal offering to the Bhikkhuni Sangha, and some of our youngest contributors to the sewing of the Kathina robe.
Highlight of the Day: Completing Dhammadharini’s 20th Vassa, and remembering the early days
A memorable highlight of the celebration was Ayya Tathaloka’s heartfelt account of Dhammadharini’s beginnings and the early days of the Bhikkhuni Sangha in California, on the occasion of the completion of Dhammadharini’s 20th Vassa. Here is a small excerpt; you may read the full speech here.
“First I would like to express my hearty and heart-felt "Anumodana!" It is nothing short of a kind of miracle that we are gathered to be celebrating this International Bhikkhuni Sangha Kathina just having completed Dhammadharini's 20th Vassa.
…[In 2005] Dhammadharini was born, the first dedicated place for Theravāda Bhikkhunīs in the western United States…
Slowly, word spread, and more and more people began to offer support, day by day. I want to deeply, deeply appreciate all our early supporters. Together with those 20 and slowly increasing numbers of supportive friends. And the founding president and founding board members of the then-new Dhammadharini Support Foundation, the first non-profit "Church" in the United States specifically for stewarding the presence and teaching-in-residence of Bhikkhunis, and for supporting those who aspired to train and ordain in this way. I would like to thank all those who contributed during that first Vassa, back in 2005.
It was an enormous surprise when, in our first years, we counted how many monastic life aspirants contacted us, and even in the beginning, they equaled between 50-100 per year. Wow!
But what we had to offer them at that time was very little–a tiny half of a rented duplex next to a diesel train junction, with only two little bedrooms, leaving aside the master bedroom as our meditation hall. The first vassa, i slept in the meditation hall closet.
At the end of Vassa, several Buddhist friends cried when they had the opportunity, for the first time in their lives, to offer the saffron patchwork robes that they could walk into a temple and offer any day to the male monks... for the first time in their lives, directly with their own hands, to a bhikkhu-ni.
That December, we took off with our little bonsai Bodhi tree and a framed painting of Sanghamitta Theri, traveling to Buddhist groups all around the Bay Area to introduce them to us, our ancient bhikkhunis' heritage, and our vision.
Many of them had never even heard of Bhikkhunis before, nor seen such an image.”
Read the remainder of Ayya Tathaloka’s reflections here.
Dhammadharini has come a long way since its founding. Having just completed our 20th Vassa this year, next summer we will celebrate 20 years since Dhammadharini’s founding. We welcome friends to join the committee to help plan this celebration, please contact us if you’re interested!
Commemorative photo of participants at the joyful end of the day just after “spreading the Kathina”,
with the Kathina robe visible on Ayya Sobhana’s shoulder
Bhikkhuni Sangha Calendar Dhammadana: A Special Bonus & Special Opportunity
On the Kathina day, as a special bonus, the community was delighted to be able to offer a printing of the Bhikkhuni Sangha Lunar Calendar as Dhamma Dana. We would like to gratefully acknowledge that this printing and Dhammadana, and many of our 2024 Bhikkhunis’ teachings, studies and programs, were made possible through a special one-year grant awarded to Dhammadharini Support Foundation in support Leadership of Women in American Buddhism from the Lenz Foundation. We have a few more printed copies of this calendar remaining, please contact us if you would like one! We warmly welcome anyone who would like to support further printing and sharing of the calendar with our Bhikkhuni Sangha, allies, friends and supporters, now and in future years—please let us know if you would like to be a part of this!
A free electronic version of the calendar is also available to download here (scroll down).
Printed Bhikkhuni Sangha Lunar Calendar posters, offered as Dhamma Dana
Deadline for Kathina offerings
The spirit of generosity is still continuing! The Kathina Season will be completed this coming full moon, on November 15th. If you wish to join in making Kathina offerings, but missed the chance on October 26th, it is not too late!—please visit our Kathina donation page by Nov 15th!
Looking forward to future years…
We are happy to announce that our friend Dinesha Kuruppuarachchi together with Buddhinie & Shamal have pledged the 2025 Dhammadharini Bhikkhuni Sangha Kathina. Are you too aspiring to lead up in offering the Kathina in a future year?—please be in touch.